what a cat-astrophe: Today in "I didn't know they were Black!!": Ludwig Van Beethoven
The true identity of Ludwig van Beethoven, long considered Europe’s greatest classical music composer. Said directly, Beethoven was a black man. Specifically, his mother was a Moor, that group of Muslim Northern Africans who conquered parts of…
Interesting, but factually sketchy. Beethoven was 1/4 Flemish and 3/4ths German. Flanders had been occupied by Spain for 200 years, but only part of Spain was ever colonized by the Moors, and certainly not everyone there had or has some trace of Moorish blood.
Furthermore, it’s a fallacy to take descriptions such as “dark” in the context that modern Western people think of as dark. Beethoven did have dark hair, and there is even some debate that his hair carried a certain sort of typical African texture to it, but that actually means very little in regards to skin tone. I’m white as they come, yet I absolutely have some textured hair that may or may not be from a mixed heritage 150 years ago.
In short, “swarthy” then did not mean the sort of dark we think of now. “Brown” “dark” and “swarthy” were very often classist remarks regarding tan. While they can and did refer to genuinely black people, they were also used merely to describe someone who had gotten too much sun. The upper classes ideal look was lily white until the early 20th century, and in a place like uber-Teutonic Germany, anyone with naturally olive skin who had received a bit of sunshine could easily fall into “dark” descriptions.
This isn’t me on a rant about BLACK PEOPLE CAN’T BE RECOGNIZED IN HISTORY; I do actually agree that too often black and/or mixed figures from history are overlooked or their race is majorly downplayed. This is, however, a case of some gross misinformation. :/
